Saturday, April 12, 2014

Got back copies of The Elementals & Marada The She-Wolf

One of the magazines I read as a youngster was Epic
Illustrated. That was Marvel Comics’ answer to Heavy Metal. While the latter
was more graphic in terms of sex or even gore, the former told better stories.

The previously unexpurgated Cholly and Flytrap (that
seemed so lame when collected later on for Radical Comics) was subversive. That
was my introduction to the artwork of Arthur Suydam.

They had the Sacred and the Profane by Dean Motter
and Ken Steacy that was about extraterrestrial colonization with the Church
playing a big role as they did during the voyages of discovery during the
colonization era. Only now, Earth people were colonizing alien cultures.
Amazing and highly imaginative story that was ahead of its time.

It had Young Cerebus by David Sim.

There was Rick Veitch’s Abraxas and the Earthman
about a man abducted by space-borne whalers and hunts for the monstrous space
whale Abraxas.

And there was Alan Zelentz and Charles Vess’ The
Raven Banner; a story of Marvel’s Asgard but dealt with a young Asgardian who
carried the Raven Banner to war. This story was my introduction to Vess’
artwork that I have loved and tried to collect since. I was able to get the
graphic novel but have since lost it to calamity.

And there was another favorite, Marada The She-Wolf
by Chris Claremont and John Bolton. This was Claremont’s answer to Red Sonja
with gorgeous painted art by John Bolton. My only grip is that Claremont never
did learn to give different voices to different characters he wrote. Marada The
She-Wolf for all its sword and sorcery, it’s dialogue read like a conversation
between Charles Xavier, Kitty Pryde, Storm, and Wolverine. That in my opinion
prevent me from totally enjoying the series. Nevertheless, I also got the
graphic novel. I just purchased a better copy from My Comic Shop replacing the
one I have lost to a typhoon.

I have since gotten the collected Cholly and Flytrap
from Radical. A new copy of Marada. The Raven Banner is proving tough to get.
And hopefully, I can get The Sacred and the Profane soon.

In recent months, I have been buying back comics that
I used to have and loved as a kid. I got the Captain America Omnibus, Madbomb
that saw the return of Jack Kirby to Marvel where he not only drew but also
wrote Cap stories during the American Bicentennial.

I also got the first trade paperback of Bill
Willingham’s The Elementals. This, along with Mike Baron’s and Steve Rude’s
Nexus from First Comics where titles that always drew my attention because they
seemed so different from anything that Marvel and DC were doing. There were
only two stories in Manila then that sold The Elementals – Filbar’s, but they
only ordered like less than five copies, and this shop whose name escapes me
but it was in Greenhills and the books were pricier than your average Marvel/DC
title. I never did get them until much later.